Cryptic? Let me explain: As a carpenter needs a hammer and a saw to build anything, in order to develop software, a software developer (aka computer programmer), needs tools for software development. Of course, today’s carpenter uses a nail gun and a circular saw, preferably battery-driven – there is progress and development even in the tools of a trade. Similarly, tools for software developers have evolved from simple text editors to advanced dedicated programs supporting every finesse of the programming language to be used. Sometimes these tools are free, in other cases you have to subscribe to them.
However, sometimes the development of these tools stalls or grinds to a complete halt. This can present a real challenge for its users.
Let’s compare a few of these ‘tools of the IT trade’ in order to get an impression of how these tools are maintained by their owners, and how responsive the owners are to their user base. As such, I need to warn that this post is mostly targeted at software developers.
IBM’s RPG:
I started working as a programmer in 1990; the programming language I was schooled in was RPG. At that time, it came in two versions: RPG II and RPG III, aka RPG/400. While the language itself had originally been developed by IBM in the late 1950s, the versions I got to work with were no longer meant to be used in punchcards, as its original. Retroactively, I made no use of RPG II and only used my knowledge of that version to safely rewrite RPG II programs into RPG/400 code. For programming either version, we had to use SEU or PDM. With PDM a licensed program and SEU free, many shops chose SEU for coding any version of RPG. While the tool itself wasn’t very user-friendly, it did what it had to do and provided full support for the syntax both RPG versions required. It was the carpenter’s original hammer and saw.
A characteristic of the RPG versions II and II was its rigorous dependence on positional syntax. Every definition and code element had to be in the exact right position on the line of code. Any deviation from this was pointed out to you by the tool (SEU or PDM), lighting up the line with now erroneous code, so you could fix it. And there the tool went mad. As long as everything was in the correct position, you could press F4 to prompt the syntax in real-time – the prompt adjusted to whatever the line contained. However, if a syntax error had been made on that line, it could no longer be prompted, and you were on your own.
In the mid-90s, RPG IV was released by IBM. Due to this new version and the rapid updates of new syntax, the trusty old SEU was put to rest; now only PDM would be adjusted to the latest versions of the RPG language. Notably, RPG II was now actively discouraged (as it should have a decade earlier), while RPG/400 was no longer extended with new syntax and functionality. RPG III is dead, long live RPG IV! Regular updates to the language were released, as were updates to the now-standard tool PDM.
Then RPG went free! As IBM duly noted, RPG was seen as old-fashioned, and its programmers were closer to their pensions than ever before. The RPG language was given a major makeover, which resulted in RPG free. Free as in free format – syntax could be anywhere on a line and formatted more freely. This new language looked more like Java than it looked like its predecessor. As such, PDM was moved aside for RDi – Rational Developer for i (‘i’ being the name of the platform IBMi). This modern development tool, based on Eclipse, offered full and modern support of all facets of the new syntax. Unfortunately, it came with a juicy price tag. This version finally turned the ever-declining base of RPG programmers around – even folks from other platforms could now be interested in switching to RPG.
In my view, the move to RPG-free is the turnaround step from IBM in saving the platform for RPG programs, the IBMi, for the future. And remember that IBM managed to stretch the RPG programming language from 1959 to today, and keep it modern!
With increased popularity, the requirement for a cheap (or free) development tool arose. The new open-source movement and freeware stepped up and created plugins for the now popular free development tool, Visual Studio Code, aka VS Code. The strength of this tool is that is can be adjusted to whatever language you happen to be using by installing – often free – plugins. VS Code was originally created by Microsoft, but is now open-source software.
Anecdote:
When I worked as an RPG contractor in the early 2000s, I was writing code in RPG IV. Only two weeks into my contract, the IT manager invited me into his office and asked me to refrain from using RPG IV – this ‘new RPG version’ as he called it – as his employed programmers did only RPG III, and one of them even only RPG II. The regular staff would not be able to maintain the modern RPG IV software, which could be a problem for them. In my view, not keeping up with developments in whatever you are working with is the real showstopper. Shortly thereafter, a new project popped up requiring us to write RPG IV as RPG III did not have the functionality required to do the process. Not long thereafter, the original staff had found its way to other companies still doing RPG III.
More about RPG:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG
Code generator Synon2E:
In the late 1980s, a new company called Synon, presented its product Synon2E, a new RPG program generator. Originally presented as a generation 4 program language, I felt it was more a generation 3.5 as it did not contain a new language; it merely enhanced the UI to an older language RPG/400. As RPG before, it, Synon was presented as a tool that even non-programmers could use – yeah, right!
I used the tool extensively from the beginning of my career, and even today. While it was flashy and fresh in the beginning, it is none of that any more. The reason is that the Synon company owners cashed out big-time in the 1990s, and subsequent owners (plural) each have contributed to stabilizing the Synon product to the point where it is today, without any noticeable development in many years. Sure, license fees are still invoiced and paid, and I assume that support is given – when asked, but development is not taking place anymore. The Synon product was put out to the proverbial greener pastures…
The original owners of the Synon company and ideas did start over after the sale. They developed Obsydian, a concept quite very similar to the Synon2E product, but now for the development of Windows Client-Server software and generating C# code. Even this company was sold off and renamed to Plex after a few years, and I haven’t heard much of it since. A trend?
More on Synon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synon
Robotics Process Automation tool BluePrism:
When I started using BluePrism (BP) back in 2017, the tool was relatively new. It had a flashy UI using drag and drop and low-code to specify or program the robotic processes. At that time, there were two major providers of RPA software: BP and UiPath. Both were quite similar in approach. While I did dive into what UiPath had to offer, my main focus was on BP.
When learning a new tool or language, everything is flashy and nice. Once you get the hang of it, you may start to discover the small bugs and tics of the tool. A little later, you may record these and contact the manufacturer to see if they can be added to their to-do list for the next version of the product. That’s how it goes for me anyway. The supplier had a very active community website where newbies could learn, and developers could exchange experiences. Also, this site provided a space where you could report bugs, or come up with enhancements to the BP product. I was indeed quite active in bringing enhancements that would make the life of a BP developer a little easier. Simple things to avoid repetition, things that simply did not work very well in practice. I kept a list of all enhancements I sent in to the community pages and recorded over 80 of them. I recall a few that got a good number of votes from others in the community, something that should have triggered the supplier to implement it. However, none of my proposals ever made it to implementation – in spite of votes.
As I kept a list of what changes I proposed, it was easy to check between versions what had actually been implemented. Most often, this was nothing – none of my ideas could be found in the new version. What I did notice when swapping between versions was differences in the UI. In some panels, I could press the Escape button on my keyboard to leave the panel. Not unusually, things had been reversed between new and old versions – I could use the keyboard to do things in the old version while I was forced to use the mouse in the newer version – or the other way around! My impression was that not much effort was put into making the UI work in a consistent way. These are issues I expect to come up during acceptance testing prior to releasing a new version.
When a basic search function was asked for a few years ago, this was finally implemented in version 6. However, it was only implemented in the Studio panel – presumably because only programmers had asked for it. The Control Room panel, which also contained a very long list to be browsed on a regular basis, did not get such a search function – something that should have been done even with not too many people asking for it.
At one point, I pointed out to BP that they ought to have two teams: One for the implementation of new tech developments, and another to enhance the UI. While it was recognized as a good idea, I wonder if anything did change.
Then, in 2022, the BluePrism company was sold to SS&C Technologies. This could go one of two ways: the new owner would pick up on long-overdue development and speed up new versions. Or, the new owner could keep things as they were – don’t rock the boat. It seems that this latter strategy was chosen, and I fear that BP will go the same way as Synon.
More on BluePrism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Prism
Microsoft’s Visual Studio – An impression:
Paul asked me to share my experiences with Visual Studio for merging this into his article about software development tools.
And when Paul politely asks for assistance, one obeys.
The Wikipedia article about Visual Studio is so exhausting that I can hardly make any meaningful additions.
Instead, I just tell about my own experience with this tremendous software package.
I started working with Visual Studio after years of developing in Java.
Can’t even remember the name of the development platform that supported Java, but it must have been adequate because I could build some massive business systems with the tool.
After my move to France, I went on as a software designer together with my pal Erik, who had earlier founded a modest firm that provided tailor-made software packages for regular company support.
In those days, Microsoft was pushing Java aside with .Net as a high-performance application platform where the applications run on a .Net Framework layer, an engine that ensures transparency and hardware independence (in that era on a Windows operating system only, today it extends to Linux and the Mac).
The beauty of the .Net system was then (and still is) that it supports various programming languages that deliver dynamically compiled assemblies. These assemblies can be mixed while maintaining full interaction, transparently into a major application that runs on the .Net Framework.
Among these programming languages, I found c++, c#, J# (a Java lookalike), Visual Basic, and some more.
I was convinced and swapped to Visual Studio, Microsoft’s IDE (Integrated Development Environment).
C# became my favourite language, as it has about the same syntax as Java, so no big surprises here.
Visual Studio came with a Windows Forms Designer that appeared to be extremely helpful.
A blank Form can be filled with controls like buttons, textboxes, comboboxes, datagrids, listviews, treeviews,you name it.
By dragging a control from the toolbox to the form and then clicking on it, the most appropriate event handler is automatically created. Simple as that.
One just has to add the code that deals with the event. Any control is a class instance with a large list of properties and methods.
Many more Designers have been added since the first appearance, like a Web designer, Class designer, Data designer, etc.
The riches within the Visual Studio treasure chest are abundantly described in Wiki’s study of the IDE.
Read on about the code editor, the debugger, and all kinds of browsers and explorers.
And about features as IntelliSense and code completion.
Two things I’d like to highlight.
1. Visual Studio and .Net pave the way to Object-Oriented Programming. OOP comes natural with it, and the concept proves itself with every code phrase.
2. The software package comes with an excellent and exhaustive class library.
An example of the latter:
In a previous essay, I wrote about RSA encryption, and I used as an example the encryption of the letter H in the form of its ASCII value 72.
The final decryption could be calculated from 3777437783 modulo 44503.
I said this about the calculation:
Cd = 3777437783 =1.20840237544473711326829460169129099… × 10172940 and from that
number we are supposed to take the modulo(n) but this insanely large number has 172941
decimal digits, now what?
I fed the calculation 3777437783 modulo 44503 into WolframAlpha’s supercomputer and the
answer came promptly: 72 which indeed is the ascii value of ‘H’.
I agree that supercomputers can do amazing things but this kind of calculations are
supposed to be performed on smartphones and tablets.
Then I discovered the .Net function Math.BigInteger.ModPow, exactly what I need for Cd
mod n. I wrote some code and applied the values to the ModPow function. In a split
second it came back with the answer: 72.
Thanks to the excellent class library of .Net I could proceed with my research. Later I learned that the calculation was based on the repeated squaring trick that keeps the numbers manageable.
I could continue about the almost flooding classes for asynchronous processing, error handling, database support, string manipulation and much more…
In summary I can say: the IDE is indispensable.
For the programmer it offers a comfortable seat in a control room.
It is much more than a development tool, it is a workshop full of sophisticated tools
Eef
November 2025
More about Visual Studio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio
Conclusions:
It seems that if a development tool gains trust and market share, and the market is attracted by this new productive tool, one of two things may happen to the companies responsible for these new products:
- The company was already a big company, and the expanded development of the development tool is considered to be part of the normal activity of the company. Something like: ‘Nothing to see here folks, moving on’. This is clearly the case for the IBM and Microsoft products mentioned above.
- The companies behind the new tools expand fast (perhaps too fast?) and quickly become exceedingly valuable. If this eventually gets to a level where stockholders are tempted to cash in and sell the company, this may very well be the beginning of the end for the tool. In the examples above, the sales for Synon and lesser so BluePrism resulted in the tool either being put to rest or further development stalling to generate income instead. In the case of Synon, the final buyer did have competing products in their own portfolio, and were probably prioritizing them over the newly acquired product.
Paul & Eef
2025-12